Hattie Big Sky
by Kirby Larson
Middle grade · ages 10–14 · grades 5–9 · 750L · 320 pages · 2007
Why we'd hand it over
A Newbery winner that actually earns it—Hattie's voice is sharp, funny, and unsentimentally brave, and the historical detail (homesteading law, drought, WWI) lands without preaching.